Last 2 escaped inmates cornered

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - Authorities late last night surrounded a hotel where the last two of seven inmates who escaped from a Texas prison a month ago were believed to be holed up in a room.

Police negotiators were communicating with the two men, who identified themselves as fugitives Patrick Murphy Jr. and Donald Newbury.

"We are in the process of negotiating with them right now to try to bring this to a peaceful conclusion," police Lt. Skip Arms said.

Arms said the two identified themselves as the escaped convicts, but officers will not know for sure until they see them.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Larry Fitzgerald said he was sure they were the missing convicts.

"We got 'em," Fitzgerald said.

Murphy, a 39-year-old rapist, and Newbury, 38, a convicted armed robber, were among inmates who escaped from a Texas prison in December, triggering one of the largest manhunts in the history of the Southwest. All seven were charged with capital murder for the slaying of an Irving, Texas, police officer during a robbery of a sporting goods store.

Four of the other convicts were captured peacefully Monday in Woodland Park, a rural bedroom community 15 miles northwest of Colorado Springs. A fifth convict killed himself as authorities closed in on a cramped motor home where the fugitives apparently had been staying since Jan. 1.

Arms said police got a tip yesterday that the two missing fugitives were in a Holiday Inn two blocks from a motel parking lot where their van had been found earlier in the day.

Police officers and SWAT team members surrounded the hotel and evacuated rooms near the fugitives.

Authorities have said the two were believed to have a dozen weapons, including assault rifles and shotguns, and may have bulletproof vests.

Earlier yesterday, Newbury's wife had pleaded for him to surrender.

"I don't want him hurt. I don't want him dead," Jacqueline Newbury said.

The hotel was about 20 miles from the mobile home park where the other escaped convicts had been captured.

Inside the RV where the inmates had been staying, officers found a "personal note" from Larry Harper, the convict who killed himself, to his family; the contents were not disclosed. Also found were $10,000 in cash, thousands of rounds of ammunition, two-way radios, a medical kit and receipts for bulletproof vests, recently purchased in Denver and Aurora, said Mark Mershon, FBI agent in charge in Colorado.

"There were 35 weapons in there, loaded, cocked and ready for action, as we say," Mershon said.

Some of the guns were taken from the Texas prison; others were traced to the sporting goods store, he said.

The seven fugitives broke out of a maximum-security prison in Kenedy, Texas, southeast of San Antonio, on Dec. 13. They were believed to have been in the Woodland Park area since around New Year's Day. Authorities were tipped off to their presence by residents who had seen the convicts featured on TV's "America's Most Wanted."

A $500,000 reward had been offered for information leading to the conviction of the officer's killer, but there was no immediate word on how or when that money might be distributed.

The three convicts captured at a convenience store near the RV park were suspected ringleader George Rivas, 30, a kidnapper and burglar; and Michael Rodriguez, 38, and Joseph Garcia, 29, both murderers. Randy Halprin, 23, who had been serving time for beating an infant, surrendered a short time later at the motor home.